In a strange, tragic turn of events, the woman who effectively destroyed Prince Andrew’s royal career by accusing him of sexually assaulting her as a teenager revealed Sunday that she’s been given “just four days to live” after being hit by a school bus.
Virginia Roberts, the most famous of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking victims, shared an Instagram photo of herself in a hospital bed, with a bruised face and heart-monitoring electrodes on her chest. She said that she’s gone into renal failure and hopes to live long enough to see her teenage children, from whom she’s reportedly estranged.
“I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time,” Roberts said.
In her post, Roberts didn’t reveal where, when or how she was injured, expect to say that she was driving somewhere when a school bus driver came at her vehicle driving 110 kilometers per hour (68 miles an hour) “as we were slowing for a turn.”
The Daily Beast reported that the Sacramento-born Roberts moved to a beachfront property in Western Australia after receiving a reported $14 million settlement from Andrew in 2022. The settlement led to the late Queen Elizabeth II removing her second son from the ranks of the working royal family and stripping him of his HRH title and military honors.
Roberts had filed a lawsuit against Andrew in New York City, alleging that she met the prince through Epstein and his girlfriend and alleged madame, Ghislaine Maxwell. As one of Epstein’s “sex slaves,” Roberts alleged that she was forced to have sex with Andrew in London in March 2001, when she was 17, and then two more times at the late financier’s Manhattan mansion and on his private island in the Caribbean.
Andrew has always said he doesn’t remember meeting Roberts, despite a widely circulated photograph, showing him grinning with his arm around Roberts’ waist in Maxwell’s London townhouse. Andrew’s supporters, including Maxwell, tried to claim that the photo is fake, but forensics experts and other commentators believe that the photo is genuine.
Following Epstein’s reported death by suicide in August 2019, Andrew faced growing scrutiny over his longtime friendship with the billionaire financier and convicted pedophile.
Maxwell, the socialite daughter of the British media mogul Robert Maxwell, subsequently was tried and convicted of child sex trafficking charges in relation to her association with Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
In February 2022, Andrew agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Roberts by paying an undisclosed sum of money.
Andrew has long considered trying to overturn his settlement with Roberts, with his friends thinking that he settled the case too quickly, according to the Daily Beast. It’s been speculated that he settled the case so as to not overshadow celebrations for his mother’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022.
Two years after Roberts’ alleged encounter with Andrew, she said she traveled to Thailand to study massage and, at Maxwell’s request, recruit another girl for Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. There, she met Robert Giuffre, an Australian martial arts trainer, married him, cut ties with Epstein and Maxwell, and settled in Australia to raise a family, according to the BBC. But the Daily Beast said Roberts had become estranged from her three children since separated from her husband last year.
Earlier this month, Roberts suggested that her children have been taken away from her amid the marital breakup.
“My beautiful babies have no clue how much I love them and they’re being poisoned with lies,” she wrote on Instagram. “I miss them so very much. I have been through hell & back in my 41 years but this is incredibly hurting me worse than anything else. Hurt me, abuse me but don’t take my babies. My heart is shattered and every day that passes my sadness only deepens.”